I guess we really don't need that pesky constitution, after all.

We don't have to create constitutional rights because we have a stupid legislature.

Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania, made this remark on CNN last night in describing how Griswold v. Connecticut was incorrectly decided. All of you undoubtedly remember Griswold held that it was unconstitutional for the state of Connecticut to prohibit counseling or medical treatment to prevent contraception. This case was decided in 1965. 1965. Practically yesterday, for Spotty anyway. You know, it's funny, because Spotty always thought the purpose of constitutional rights was to protect people from stupid legislatures.

You all probably also remember that the Griswold case started the line of cases establishing a right of privacy that ultimately led to Roe v. Wade, and recently to Lawrence v. Texas which struck down the Texas sodomy law that prohibited private consensual sexual relations with persons of the same sex. In the briefest of summary, the Supreme Court found in Griswold that a right of privacy existed in the constitution, not because of one specific provision, but rather a collection of privisions: the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments, and that privacy was a penumbra of the shadow cast by these Amendments.

The subtext of this is, of course, the current campaign against judges who "legislate" from the bench. Little Rickey laid it out for you very well. Conservatives want to get rid of Roe v. Wade all right, but they really want to ditch the right of privacy in general. Then, the little bug-eyed control freaks will have a much easier time asserting social control over all of us.



The video link is from the excellent and useful Crooks and Liars.